If there was ever a way to get royal armchair experts seething, this is it.

Fresh off their debut at Royal Ascot, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry made their next appearance at the Queen’s Young Leaders Awards Ceremony, held at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

The Duchess of Sussex was sitting with her grandmother-in-law, IOL reports, looking fly in a simple, yet elegant, Prada dress.

That’s when she dared to do the unthinkable.

You might want to brace yourself for this:

Watch the moment Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, breaks royal etiquette rules and crosses her legs. The Duchess quickly caught her mistake and crosses her ankles instead. #Royalintraining #RoyalVisitCheshire pic.twitter.com/Y0CKUymp15

— On Demand News (@ODN) June 14, 2018

Gasp! Did she really just do that?

Yes, she did:

Double gasp!

Then she went and did it again, this time with her hubby right beside her:

Shock and horror.

No really, armchair experts are freaking out over this faux pas of apparently epic proportions:

This particular user on Facebook also took a potshot at the Duchess:

What do the royal experts say? You know, the ones who actually know the royal protocol gig?

According to actual royal etiquette experts, while they should not cross their legs at the knee for the practical reason of protecting their modesty from photographers, [Markle] did not break any rules.

Myka Meier, founder and director of Beaumont Etiquette, said: “There is no official protocol that says exactly how one must sit when near the Queen.”

Instead, it was suggested that [Markle] adopts a pose she has used before called ‘the duchess slant’, which was named after the Duchess of Cambridge – keeping both knees and ankles tightly together while slanting the legs to the side.

Etiquette expert Liz Brewer said: “Normally you cross legs at the ankles to avoid any embarrassment. However, there is nothing in writing saying, “Thou shalt not cross at the knees.”?”

Case closed, folks.

If we learnt anything from this, it’s that people should be allowed to cross their legs in peace.

Oh, and that some royal fanatics are truly a petty bunch indeed.

[source:iol]